Joseph Pennington
Chargé d’Affaires, a.i.

Joseph Pennington arrived at the American Embassy in Yerevan as Deputy Chief of Mission in July 2007. He became Charge d’Affaires in October 2007.

Mr. Pennington joined the Foreign Service in 1989, and came to Armenia following an assignment as the US Embassy Spokesman in Ankara, Turkey (2002-2006). He had previously served as political-economic officer at the US Consulate General in Naples, Italy (2001-2002). Mr. Pennington worked for two years in Bosnia-Herzegovina, first as economic officer in the US Embassy in Sarajevo, and subsequently as Director of the US Embassy Branch Office in Mostar. He served as political-economic officer in Adana, Turkey (1995-98), and worked in the consular section at the US Embassy in Moscow (1989-91). Mr. Pennington also worked on export control issues in the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs (1991-93).

Mr. Pennington was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He completed his B.A. in Political Science at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and earned an M.A. at Columbia University (1986). He speaks Armenian, Turkish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and Italian. Mr. Pennington is married to Amberin Zaman, a journalist who currently works as Turkey correspondent for the British weekly The Economist.